FIG. 1 depicts an air-bearing surface (ABS) view of a conventional magnetic recording apparatus 10. The magnetic recording apparatus 10 may be a perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) apparatus or other magnetic write apparatus. The conventional magnetic recording apparatus 10 may be a part of a merged head including the write apparatus 10 and a read apparatus (not shown). Alternatively, the magnetic recording head may only include the write apparatus 10.
The write apparatus 10 includes a leading shield 12, side shield(s) 14, gap 16, a pole 20 and a trailing shield 30. The apparatus 10 may also include other components including but not limited to coils for energizing the pole 20. The top (trailing surface) of the pole 20 is wider than the bottom (leading surface) of the pole 20.
Although the conventional magnetic recording apparatus 10 functions, there are drawbacks. In particular, the conventional magnetic write apparatus 10 may not perform sufficiently at higher recording densities. For example, at higher recording densities, the pole 20 is desired to be smaller, at least at the ABS. The conventional write apparatus 10 may be not provide a sufficiently high field or the desired field gradient for writing to a media (not shown). Stated differently, the writeability of the conventional pole 20 may suffer. Accordingly, what is needed is a system and method for improving the performance of a magnetic recording head, particularly at higher areal densities.